PROLOGUE
One Year Ago
Where was he?He was supposed to be here. He was late. An hour late.
Indie Reed tapped the screen of her phone for what had to be the twentieth time. It was almost five. So close to when that call from the nurse was coming.
Most IVF nurses didn’t call at five. They liked the morning. She’d had to fight for the later call. And shehadfought. Because it was the only time Colt could be here.
Her gaze moved from her phone to the street through her living room window. Still nothing.
Why? He knew how important this was. He should be answering her calls. Actually, no, if he was going to be late, he should be callingher.
She breathed in a lungful of air, a tremble starting to skitter through her fingers.
She felt sick. The kind that didn’t just crawl around her belly. She felt it everywhere. In her mouth. Her limbs. Deep in her body.
If the nurse gave her bad news and he wasn’t here, she wasn’t sure what would happen. Would she crumble? Break? Or would her body just go numb?
Six years. Six years of trying and failing to have a baby, each one harder than the last. She hadn’t known the world of infertility could be so dark. She hadn’t knowna lotsix years ago.
And now? Now she was struggling. Hell, struggling didn’t even touch the surface of the hole that had begun to form in her chest. The hole that kept getting bigger and bigger. Some days, she wondered how big it could get before she completely hollowed out.
This was their last embryo. After six years of trying, four years of that being IVF, she wasn’t sure she was strong enough to go through another round. The hormones, the injections, the procedures. And the hope…the hope that built with every round, only to be squashed by those two words: not pregnant.
No. This time, it was going to work. She was pregnant. She had to be. She’d intentionally not tested this round, needing to wait for the results of the blood test.
She closed her eyes, the thuds of her heartbeat so strong that she felt them throughout her entire body.
Where was he? She tried to be understanding of his commitments to the military. He was a Marine. Most of the time, his life wasn’t his own. But right now, he was supposed to be here.
His plane had arrived into Bozeman two hours ago and the drive to Amber Ridge was only an hour.
She hit his name on her cell again and pressed it to her ear.
Pick up. Please, pick up. Tell me you’re close, Colt.
The click of someone answering lit hope in her chest.
“Indie. It’s Sylvia.”
The hope crashed and burned at the sound of her mother-in-law’s voice. “Sylvia. Why are you answering Colt’s phone? Is he with you?”
“We’re at the hospital. He’d just gotten to Amber Ridge when I started getting chest pains. I called him in a panic because I thought I was having a heart attack. Thank God I wasn’t! He’s just talking to my doctor in the hall.”
Air thickened in Indie’s lungs, making her next breath so hard her chest squeezed.
He was with his mother. Sylvia knew what time Colt was getting in. She’d also known how important this call was.
She’d done this on purpose. She’d done similar things before.
But that wasn’t what hurt the most. It was that Colt had gone to her. Coltalwayswent to her.
“He’s not going to make it…” The words were barely a whisper from her lips, the heaviness trying to drag her to the floor.
“Oh, the call from the clinic. I’m sorry. I completely forgot. He won’t be long.”
It didn’t matter how long he took—the nurse was calling any second now. “I need to go.”
